You will always have exceptions to the rule of poor or middle class people who become rich and famous without going to college. However, these types of people aren’t always the most savory individuals either. For instance, world famous rapper Jay-Z created his entire commercial empire of music, clothing, liquor and nightclubs on drug money. That’s right, beloved “Jay-Hova” proudly proclaims that he founded his original Roc-A-Fella Records imprint on drug money he had been stacking since doing hand to hand crack sales in 1988. My point is, people like Jay-Z are terrible role models for young minorities who should be pursuing their dreams through education instead of trying to be another illiterate dope-dealer turned gangsta rapper. For every Jay-Z “fuck school” success story, there are tens of thousands twenty-something year old drug dealers locked up indefinitely in prison. Stay in school, kids.

You will always have exceptions to the rule of poor or middle class people who become rich and famous without going to college. However, these types of people aren’t always the most savory individuals either. For instance, world famous rapper Jay-Z created his entire commercial empire of music, clothing, liquor and nightclubs on drug money. That’s right, beloved “Jay-Hova” proudly proclaims that he founded his original Roc-A-Fella Records imprint on drug money he had been stacking since doing hand to hand crack sales in 1988. My point is, people like Jay-Z are terrible role models for young minorities who should be pursuing their dreams through education instead of trying to be another illiterate dope-dealer turned gangsta rapper. For every Jay-Z “fuck school” success story, there are tens of thousands twenty-something year old drug dealers locked up indefinitely in prison. Stay in school, kids.

In all fairness, I do agree that people tend to expect too much from degrees. I know a good deal of my friends (fairly smart cookies) who studied one thing and are now doing something completely different.

Degree or not, it seems like there is no shortcut around hard work for success… That includes everyone on those lists above

The point of the post isn’t to discourage people from getting a degree — I think most people should go to college. The point is to discourage people from seeing a degree for what it isn’t: the ultimate tool for one’s career, that one can’t live without.

While this list and those on CollegeDropoutHallofFame.com are impressive, I would definitely caution that this is the exception rather than the rule. I’d say that the people who appear on your page were lucky enough to have opportunities available to them which far outweighed going to college (big risk or big reward decisions). Not everyone is so lucky (in fact I’d guess the statistics are heavily weighted against).

And while I’ll be the first to admit that education has its limits as a guide for success, but I’m also the first to roll my eyes when I hear about people who have PhD’s from the school of “hard knocks”.